Patent GB-643154-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to storage containers, particularly bunkers for coal, and storage plant, comprising apparatus for filling and emptying the containers
IPC: B65G65/28
Filed: 1947-03-17
Abstract: 643,154. Charging bunkers; endless-belt conveyers; shoots and hoppers. MITCHELL, F. G. March 17, 1947, No. 7343. [Classes 78 (i) and 78 (iv)] [Also in Group XXXVII] A storage bunker, especially a coal bunker, is loaded by a tripper driven along the top of the bunker by an electric motor and supplied with material in all positions by a supply conveyer, the electric motor being automatically controlled by means including a switch which is closed when the level of the coal rises towards the tripper so that the tripper travels along the bunker until the switch is opened when the level of the coal below the tripper falls. A tripper 28 (Fig. 3) is driven by an electric motor on it along a rail track 26 over a coal bunker 10 and is supplied with coal by a conveyer belt 18 which is formed in an S-bend by passing over rollers 48, 49 on the tripper so that it delivers to a hopper 42 on the tripper whence the coal falls into the bunker 10. The tripper is controlled by a switch 68 (Figs. 5 and 6) in the wall of the hopper 42 which is closed when coal rises up the hopper 42 and by a manually set cross-over switch 76, which passes current only when the switch 68 is closed, determining the direction of travel of the tripper. The motor 30, Fig. 6, of the tripper is supplied with power by power lines 72, 73 and by motor lines 70, 71, extending along the bunker, the lines 72, 73 and 70, 71 being connected through the switch 76 by collector arms 176, 276 carried by the tripper while the motor 30 is connected to the lines 70, 71 through collector arms 74. Thus the tripper delivers coal to the bunker until the space below it is full so that coal rises in the hopper 42 to close the switch 68, whereupon the motor 30 is energized in a direction dependent on the polarity of the lines 70, 71 as set by the switch 76. The tripper then moves until the level of coal below it is sufficiently low to permit the switch 68 to open. The switch 68 may open against a dashpot to provide a time delay so that the tripper always travels a predetermined minimum distance. A tripper limit switch 75 cuts out the motor 30 when the tripper reaches the end of the bunker. Coal may be delivered from the bunker at any of several discharge trunks 60, Figs. 3 and 5. The tripper motor 30 may be controlled by further switches so that if coal is removed from the bunker during filling the tripper will travel back to fill the depression. For this purpose auxiliary lines 99, 199, Fig. 6, extend along the bunker and are connected to the power lines 72, 73 by collector arms 101, 201 through switches 100, 200 which are open when the switch 68 is closed and closed when the switch 68 is open. The motor lines 70, 71 are connected to the motor line 72 and to the auxiliary lines 99, 199 through crossover switches 81-86 manually set to move the tripper in the opposite direction from the switch 76 and through switches 93-98 and 87-92 spaced along the bunker, one adjacent each discharge trunk 60. The switches 87-92 are opened when the coal rises at the corresponding point in the bunker, while the switches 93- 98 are operated by passage of the tripper. For example, as shown in Fig. 9, the switch 95 is operated through links 126, 128 by levers 106, 108 spaced on each side of a delivery trunk, the levers 106, 108 being pivoted to bell-crank levers 116, 118 carrying counterweights 120 and capable of pivoting relatively to the levers 106, 108 in one direction only. Thus a striker 104 on the tripper operates the switches in such a way that all switches 93-98 to the left of the tripper are open while those to the left are closed. If while filling the bunker with the tripper moving from the right in Figs. 3 and 6 a depression is formed behind the tripper, the corresponding switch (say) 92 is closed to complete a circuit when the switches 100, 200 are closed causing the tripper to travel back to fill the depression. The switches 81-86 may be operated by passage of the tripper to prepare circuits for the tripper to travel in either direction to fill depressions in the coal. The bunker 10 has associated with it a supply conveyer 16, Fig. 3, receiving coal from a drift conveyer or from a railway line and delivering through a long slanting shoot 38 of a hopper 36 to the conveyer 18 and through a short vertical shoot 39 of the same hopper to a rotary plate feeder 40 which delivers to a trough conveyer 22, Fig. 5, which carries the coal to a pick breaker house. The pick breaker house is also fed by a further trough conveyer 20 receiving coal from the discharge trunks 60 of the bunker through feeder devices 62, and coal is conveyed from the pick breaker house by railway. To prevent breakage, the bunker is provided with walls 52, 54, Fig. 3, and 56, Fig. 5, inclined at the angle of repose of the coal, and the hopper 42 has a laterally slanting shoot 44, Fig. 5.